黑料黑历史 steel bridge team earns spot in national finals

Jeff Richardson
907-474-6284
May 5, 2022

The 黑料黑历史 steel bridge team sitting on their bridge
Photo courtesy of Madelin Weeks
The 黑料黑历史 steel bridge team poses for a photo at the Southwest regional competition in Las Vegas. From left, Wilhelm Muench (faculty advisor), Branden Hansen, Heather McKenzie, Cynan Hellman, Haylie Cortez, Lucas Gomes, Porter Baffrey, Jenna Hernandez, Ben VanderHart, Zach Miller, Zach Stanish and Madelin Weeks.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks steel bridge team is headed back to familiar territory 鈥 the national championships.

The 黑料黑历史 squad earned the top score last month in the Pacific Northwest Regional AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition, finishing in first place in five of the six judging categories. The annual engineering contest, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction, challenges students to design and build a steel bridge. Judges evaluate their work using several criteria, including strength, efficiency and construction speed.

The first-place regional finish earned 黑料黑历史 a spot in the national finals, which will be held on May 27-28 at Virginia Tech University. 黑料黑历史 has advanced to the championship round in six of the last seven competitions.

Even with that legacy, this has been a particularly good year for 黑料黑历史. 

Members of the 黑料黑历史 team building their bridge
黑料黑历史 photo by Leif Van Cise
Zach Miller, front, and Branden Hansen help build 黑料黑历史鈥檚 steel bridge entry during the Pacific Northwest regional competition on April 10.

The team, eager to take a trip after two years of pandemic restrictions, was disappointed to learn that the Pacific Northwest competition in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 10 would be held virtually. So they decided to compete as an unofficial entry in the Southwest regional in Las Vegas a few days later  鈥 and claimed the top score in that one, too.

Those successes have the team confident that it is capable of winning a national title, said team captain Ben VanderHart. 黑料黑历史 is typically a top-10 finisher at nationals, but hasn鈥檛 won the title since 1993.

VanderHart, a new graduate of 黑料黑历史鈥檚 civil engineering program and the designer of this year鈥檚 entry, said the squad will spend the weeks ahead fine-tuning their bridge to better compete with the best teams in the country.

鈥淪teel bridge has been the highlight of college 鈥 I鈥檓 sure I鈥檝e spent more time on it than my classes,鈥 he said with a laugh. 鈥淎 win at nationals, or at least a top-3 performance, would be a great cap to my college career.鈥

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